Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal.

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Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Ask a technical founder about his startup, and he'll proudly describe his stunning software — simple, compelling, useful, fun. Four uncomfortable seconds later, a smile breaks across the founder's face. We're going to use an affiliate program so our customers sell it for us.". We're going to get reviews on blogs.".

Software Review 261

Software Review Technical Review Viral Software Developers 261

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 11, 2021

With their affordability, you can invest in several and gain more return by earning customer trust before a sale occurs. They’ve built more trust with their followers, so customers might be more willing and trusting when they check out your website after the micro-influencer recommends you. 17- Saturated with bootstrapped businesses.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Technical Review Social Media Bootstrapping 126

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

by Amit Damani , cofounder of Vista Rooms. Bootstrap was term coined from the computer lingo ‘booting’ which means starting a computer or starting a chain of processes which eventually starts up the operating system. Bootstrap mentality is critical for a startup to succeed, irrespective of whether it has raised funds or not.

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Bootstrapping Cofounder Startup Sales Cycle 100

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2019

According to Lee M Von Kraus, PHD and a mentor at Clarity.fm, “Early stage startups are usually pre-money startup that are bootstrapping the early development of a product.”. You are looking for cofounders that can help you build a product. You have finally found a cofounder that can take care of the startup. Commitment.

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Startup Technical Cofounder Merger Early Stage 113

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 7, 2012

7 Crucial Lessons from an Embarrassing Customer Service Trainwreck | Help Scout - [link]. Seth’s Blog: The cycle of customers who care - [link]. Attention founders: Here’s how you respond to an unfair post about your company - [link]. Questions to Ask Potential Cofounders: The Master List | Founder Dating - [link].

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Social Media Small Business Design Media 104

View from Seed

JULY 7, 2015

I recently sat down with the remarkably thoughtful (and insanely scrappy) Patrick Campbell , co-founder and CEO of Price Intelligently. Startup Lessons You’ll Learn: What tradeoffs a bootstrapped startup’s CEO makes. The moving story of Patrick beating cancer and the surprising way that changed him as a founder.

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Bootstrapping Founder Boston Cofounder 120

Up and Running

JUNE 4, 2018

This is clear when you do anything from checking in your baggage for a flight, to contacting a large company’s customer service department! It’s easier to bootstrap. It’s important to note that while the likes of Facebook and Dell are often referred to as bootstrapped, that’s actually a bit of a myth. These include: 1.

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Bootstrapping Colorado Internet Software Review 66

Spencer Fry

APRIL 17, 2017

Days before the conference started, I was asked (and felt honored) to lead two workshops on bootstrapping vs. raising money. Having started and sold 3 successful bootstrapped businesses, and am now running 1 venture capital backed business ( Coach ), this is a topic I know a thing or two about. Hello, debt. Competition is everywhere.

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Bootstrapping Cap Table Liquidation Preference Cofounder 63

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 7, 2007

This is typically called “bootstrapping&# and it is fraught with potential pitfalls and dangers. But when done well it can really help get a company going fast, professionally and without the founders having to give up much (if any) equity - or bankrupting themselves. What is bootstrapping? Why bootstrap?

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Bootstrapping Offshore Startup EC2 41

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Clavier began his presentation at the beginning of a company's lifecycle, asking how many co-founders a startup ought to have. If you like this kind of advice, check out my coverage of a talk by Paul Palmieri, Co-Founder and CEO of mobile advertising service Millennial Media, titled " Investing in Your Influencers. ".

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

ReadWriteStart

JULY 12, 2023

CEO and co-founder of InvGate Ariel Gesto says the company will continue to expand this year. Gesto decided to scale InvGate after bootstrapping for the past 14 years. Companies can increase their revenue potential and access new customer bases by expanding into new markets.

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United States Management Mexico Artificial Inteligence 121

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

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Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 1, 2012

Sacha demonstrated the benefits of selling many copies of an eBook at a low price, while Jarrod pointed out the advantages of higher prices, bringing in more revenue with 1/6th the number of units sold. This is a choice that every startup founder must make , so I’d like to dig in deeper. maximizing per-unit profitability).

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Customer Revenue Acquisition Cofounder 320

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2017

To determine whether freemium is right for you, do the simple math: Figure out how many paying customers you need to run the company. If you charge every user $50 and spend $10K to pay the business bills, you need at least 200 customers to break even. In our example, it’s 20K non-paying customers.

Startup 110

Startup Non-Compete Viral Software Review 110

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

Yet many entrepreneurs rely on expensive outside services and outside money, rather than do the networking for a co-founder or two who have the right skills to work for equity. Bootstrapping not only reduces cash needs, but increases commitment. The need to hire staff immediately. A desire to roll out on a massive scale.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Cofounder Equity Agile 120

ConversionXL

MARCH 31, 2021

Customer interviews allow you to uncover: Why they decided to do business with you; Why they love working with you; What other challenges they have in their business; Where they go for new information. Your customers can provide you with pain-points to write about, as well as success stories to attract new clients.

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Audience Non-Compete Distribution Channel 127

Up and Running

AUGUST 27, 2020

My co-founder Andrew and I built Canny , a SaaS tool to help businesses collect and manage customer feedback and build their product roadmap, from the ground up. Canny is 100% bootstrapped —we haven’t taken any outside funding. We’re profitable, and we just cracked $800K in annual recurring revenue earlier this year.

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Founder Cofounder Bootstrapping Startup 120

K9 Ventures

MAY 28, 2015

At K9 we invest in companies which have a clear/direct revenue model and typically don’t invest in companies that follow the Ubiquity first Revenue Later (URL) revenue model made famous by Eric Schmidt in 2007. I call this Revenue Development and have written about it before. Why did the customers buy your product?

Revenue 48

Revenue Startup Burn Rate Cofounder 48

Sophia Perl of Wisdom

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

Some of the finalists were generating revenues already and/or have very promising strategic partnerships lined up. Note to self, this event is not for alpha products with no customers. The business model for residential solar panel company: contract with customer, local rebates, and tax benefits.

CTO Hire 49

CTO Hire Cofounder Fractional CTO San Francisco 49

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 17, 2011

Entrepreneurs from Latin and Central America were given first priority to pitch their businesses at today's roundtable co-hosted by Innova Tiquicia and Startup Weekend Costa Rica. He needs to bootstrap it to a certain level, and following the 1M/1M methodology would be a good start. and each book costs $375 retail.

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Costa Rica America Silicon Valley Entrepreneur 114

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2013

They evaluate you like you should assess a possible co-founder or first employee. Customer needs and benefits first, then product features. They are able to weave their solution into the market, the opportunity, and customers, in a way that sounds like a natural fit, rather than a product sales pitch. Marty Zwilling.

Founder 270

Founder Cofounder Bootstrapping Entrepreneur 270

Sophia Perl of Wisdom

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

Some of the finalists were generating revenues already and/or have very promising strategic partnerships lined up. Note to self, this event is not for alpha products with no customers. The business model for residential solar panel company: contract with customer, local rebates, and tax benefits.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Cofounder Fractional CTO San Francisco 40

Up and Running

DECEMBER 23, 2019

Bootstrapping, saving funds over years, borrowing from friends and family, taking out a bank loan and pitching investors are all viable options, but some will work better than others for your specific business. . The garage sale approach is a simple, fiscally safe and effective approach to bootstrapping a services-based business.

Finance 92

Finance Sweat Equity Bootstrapping Entrepreneur 92

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2016

A solution would be to find a co-founder with the requisite background or investors who know you. Revenue and profit projections are not credible. Attractive businesses to investors may show revenues that double every year but don’t exceed the gross national product of your country.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Accredited Investor Angel Investor Reputation 120

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

They evaluate you like you should assess a possible co-founder or first employee. Customer needs and benefits first, then product features. They are able to weave their solution into the market, the opportunity, and customers, in a way that sounds like a natural fit, rather than a product sales pitch.

Entrepreneur 242

Entrepreneur Bootstrapping Cofounder Restful 242

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2016

Mark Zuckerberg can tell you a horror story about how his early informal breakup with a co-founder ultimately cost him a settlement later worth four billion dollars. A co-founder who loses interest and backs out early will likely be back to claim his half after you reach unicorn status. Don’t give away your business.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Due Diligence Non-Compete Startup 120

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 16, 2013

Adam Arbolino is the co-founder and CTO of DesignCrowd.com , a logo, web and graphic design marketplace. The site I co-founded, DesignCrowd.com, grew from a garage office to a thriving marketplace with 148,000 designers, and businesses who have created $12 million worth of jobs, in just a few years by applying these ideas.

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Cofounder Analytics Java PHP 159

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2011

They evaluate you like you should assess a possible co-founder or first employee. Customer needs and benefits first, then product features. They are able to weave their solution into the market, the opportunity, and customers, in a way that sounds like a natural fit, rather than a product sales pitch.

Entrepreneur 268

Entrepreneur Bootstrapping Cofounder Business Plan 268

Hearpreneur

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

As a bootstrapped company, fuelling your own growth can be challenging and comes with many lessons learned. This is exactly what Matt Buchanan and his co-founder have done while leading a technology company that offers local lead generation solutions, based in Austin, TX. Tell us about your products and services.

Bootstrapping 72

Bootstrapping North America Lead Generation Demand 72

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 4, 2015

When you find your creative team to design and develop it, part of their market research entails researching your competition and your customers. More and more companies are investing in the user experience, because their customers are expecting it, especially those of the millennial generation. Advantage: Keep your visitors.

Web 28

Web Technical Review Sales Cycle Cofounder 28

ReadWriteStart

MAY 30, 2022

While investors can seem like a solution to countless problems you encounter as a founder, don’t be too hasty to start eating from their hands. In this article, you’ll learn how bootstrapping makes you a better business – a leaner, smarter, more agile company that can roll with the punches. You might even ask for it.

Bootstrapping 147

Bootstrapping Startup Equity Silicon Valley 147

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2010

They evaluate you like you should assess a possible co-founder or first employee. Customer needs and benefits first, then product features. They are able to weave their solution into the market, the opportunity, and customers, in a way that sounds like a natural fit, rather than a product sales pitch.

Bootstrapping 242

Bootstrapping Cofounder Business Plan Entrepreneur 242

Hearpreneur

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

As a bootstrapped company, fuelling your own growth can be challenging and comes with many lessons learned. This is exactly what Matt Buchanan and his co-founder have done while leading a technology company that offers local lead generation solutions, based in Austin, TX. Tell us about your products and services.

Bootstrapping 62

Bootstrapping North America Lead Generation Demand 62

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

And so the spreadsheet is built with conservative assumptions, including a final revenue target. No matter how low we make the revenue projections for this new product, it’s extremely unlikely that they are achievable. That’s because the model is based on assumptions about customers that are totally unproven.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

www.mint.com

MARCH 9, 2010

Go there now » Sign up or log in to mint.com Updates Drop Your Debt to Win 2 comments How To The Top 5 Customer Complaint Letters — And What You Can Learn From Them 5 comments Investing In Graphics: What Is a Stock? These days revenue is the best source of capital. Are you going after the same customers? That’s cool.

Software Review 68

Software Review Startup Post-Money Valuation Technical Review 68

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

But in today’s world, speed-to-scale entrepreneurship is what we need to improve society, transform industries, and create massive value for customers, employees, and investors. Customers value and benefit from the convenience, price, and selection of Amazon, which is why the company is, by a wide margin, America’s largest bookseller.

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Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28